Technical Field
Exemplary aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a cooling device, a laser device, and an image processing apparatus incorporating the cooling device and laser device.
Related Art
In recording and erasing an image on a thermoreversible recording medium, for example, a contact recording method is used in which a heat source heats the thermoreversible recording medium in contact with the thermoreversible recording medium.
There is market demand that an image be rewritten on such a thermoreversible recording medium without contacting the medium. Consequently, a recording and erasing method using a laser in a non-contact manner is proposed, as a method of recording and erasing an image on a thermoreversible recording medium without contacting the medium or on a thermoreversible recording medium having surface irregularities.
In a laser device that irradiates a thermoreversible recording medium with a laser beam in such a manner, a cooling device is disposed to cool the laser device, thereby stabilizing the output or wavelength of the laser light source, extending the operational life thereof. Such a cooling device cools the laser light source by a cooling process, such as an air-cooling process with a fan, a liquid-cooling process with a liquid coolant, or a cooling process using a Peltier unit.
Further, for image processing apparatuses to irradiate thermoreversible recording media with laser beams to record and erase images on and from the thermoreversible recording media, an image processing method is proposed to perform both image erasing and image recording in a single image processing apparatus (a single laser device), in consideration with cost reduction and space saving.